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(iv)
of Tirhut Division of Bihar, believed to be the meeting point of Maithili and Bhojpuri, has nothing to do with the Magadhi A pbh. It is an import from the Kanyakubja country by an influencial migrating community, later merging with the native stock. They speak ha:ti for I am ha:te (familiar), ha:ta : (ordinary) and ha:tin (polite) for you are, and ha: 1 (ordi. nary), ha:tin (polite) for he is. They speak half ǝ, → and 2ǝ which are not to be found in other Bihari dialects. However, this is not a place to discuss these points.
Throughout my study of the Apbh language, I have been of the view that no grammar was written while Apbh was spoken by the common people, and the poets had also begun to use this language when it was outdated and ceased to be spoken in the form as presented by the poets. That is why, some words are very obscure in meaning and some grammatical forms are obscure even to the grammarians. But this is also not a point to be discussed here.
I have also given examples from other Apbh texts, but they are negligible. It was my desire not to restrict this grammar to a particular dialect, but I am not sure I have been able to do it.
The idea of writing an Apabhramsa grammar came into my mind when I found that the compilation of an Apabhramsa dictionary (entitled Sadda-sayaru), which I had originally planned, was likely to be a stupendous task on account of the unavailability of the printed Apbh texts, specially those with English or Hindi translation.
Though I have written half a dozen of books, I did not have so much thrilling experience in writing them as in the preparation of this grammar. In a life full of ups and downs, there are only few occasions for genuine smiles, but this book gave me wonderful experiences. For a western student of Indology, who has all facilities at his disposal, namely a sincere teacher or a guide, a good library, decent papers and pencils, etc., it would have been a routine experience, but for me it was quite otherwise I was at the same time a student and a teacher. I was
